Today's academic libraries must demonstrate their value to cost-conscious university administrators. Budget trade-off decisions that involve the library can be difficult for any university administrator to make, and such decisions are complicated by the recent appearance of massive global digital libraries that seem poised to replace the university library as the principal source of scholarly information. University of California vice provost Daniel Greenstein, speaking at the 2009 Ithaka conference, highlighted the need for re-visioning and the growing inevitability of downsizing for the academic library. Online universities are a phenomenon of the 21st century and the new economies of the web. These highly business-oriented enterprises also come without allegiance to the trappings and traditions of academia. Fortunately, countervailing forces linger. Accreditation remains a factor. This article discusses the Online Library initiative of the American Public University System (APUS). (Contains 2 figures.)